BLACK TO COMM BACK ISSUES FOR SALE! (what else?)
Why am I typing this at 12:15 AM when I should be fast asleep in my comfy little crib? Let's face it, here in the dawn of the teens there are many things keeping this blogster wide awake and worried, and amongst the woes that have pretty much enveloped me o'er the past few months has been that albatross around my neck known as BLACK TO COMM BACK ISSUES!!! Often ignored, always degraded and clinging somewhere at the bottom of the eighties/nineties fanzine totem pole pecking order, BLACK TO COMM may have been a crudzine in a field of professionally published wares but it was my crudzine and for that I shall never abandon hope of it someday being considered a magazine that at least pulled its own weight giving the reader jam-packed info on groups that none of the other so-called "independent" fanzine wonks would dare touch. Or else they'd touch the same material that I was dabbling in a good five years earlier, but I won't hold it against 'em for learning (better late than never)!
BLACK TO COMM was also a mag that was constantly lied about, misrepresented and downright poo-poo'd during its amazing eighteen-year run. Distribution was pretty sparse with various businesses either refusing to deal it or stiffing me by changing the name of said business and skedaddling with the money due. And of course BLACK TO COMM offended many people who I guess could dish it out but couldn't take it, people who thought it was perfectly fine to destroy the icons of mid-Amerigan civilization but felt that my attacks on their sacred cows were "vile". Only goes to show you what kind of people have been "bred" by the laxity of the postwar permissiveness, people who demand their wants with iron-fisted venom and still continue to suck from the same lower-class workers they loathe with a passion. Well, if these are the beings who find not only BLACK TO COMM but this blog beneath contempt it only goes to show you that I must have been doing something right lo these many years.
But let's face it, BLACK TO COMM was a whole lot more innovative, high energy, daring and downright fun than most of the competition back during that supposed fanzine Golden Age. We were talking about forgotten seventies heroes and eighties underground obscurities back when most fanzine editors seemed more concerned with kissing Gerard Cosloy's ass than giving a good enough presentation of the best of the past and the promise of the future bundled up in a breezy read in the here and now. And who else in the mid-eighties would even think of printing Rocket From The Tombs lyrics and then-obscure live photos, or dig into the histories of some of the second and third rung CBGB groups at a time when just about everybody else could care less? Who other than maybe FLESH AND BONES even knew who Von Lmo was! Or had Bill Shute interview Kenne Highland at a time when his group Hopelessly Obscure were certainly living up to their name? Now I don't expect any Nobel Prize for this even though at times I think I deserve it, but maybe taking some of these still available back issues off my hands would help a soul out not only financially, but spiritually as well!
So here's what's still available (actually I must admit that I do have limited quantities of a few other issues which I have stockpiled for trading and purchasing purposes...I assume that if you're that interested in obtaining any you would get in contact with me to work up some hotcha trade deal or perhaps cold cash plunk down...'s up to you). If you're interested in any of the following issues which are in ample supply (to put it mildly) just write to the rag care of Christopher Stigliano @ 701 North Hermitage Rd., Suite 23, Hermitage, PA 16148 USA and make the checks out in my moniker and not to BLACK TO COMM! Prices are postpaid in the USA, though outside of the country one must better write first a list of whatever issues are so desired so I can work up some international postal rates to help empty out your bank account (don't bitch at me because of the exorbitant overseas rates...contact your local postman and give him what for!)
********************************************************************BLACK TO COMM #14-Early 1989. Featuring part one of the Ron Asheton interview, a nice though could be much better given all the information discovered since piece on the Deviants, an article on Peter Laughner's Cinderella Backstreet, the Seeds and Charlemagne Palestine. $6.00
BLACK TO COMM #17-Early '90. The first of the "big" issues (74 pages) has a cover story/interview with Scott Morgan and Gary Rasmussen from the old Scott Morgan band. Also inside's an interview with Borbetomagus' Donald Miller as well as one , skimpy at that, with Maureen Tucker, not to mention pieces on Fish Karma (who I liked until hearing his overly-preachy kiss kiss moosh anti-gun song entitled "God Bless The NRA"), the Dogs (from Detroit, not the French ones or the Flamin' Groovies for that matter!), Rocket From the Tombs (with loads of old photos and the like, some never seen before or since!), the top 25 of heavy metal, METAL MACHINE MUSIC, a piece on the then-new proto-punk reissues and archival digs of the day and the usual reviews and news. $7.00.
BLACK TO COMM #21-From November '94. A VON LMO cover story and interview grace this ish, as do interviews with Metal Mike Saunders, Brian McMahon (Electric Eels) and rockabilly star Ronnie Dawson, plus you can read much-desired items on the Trashmen, Velvet Underground and Hawkwind like I knew you would! Not to mention a piece on the infamous TEENAGE WASTELAND GAZETTE fanzine! $8.00.
BLACK TO COMM #24- From spring 2001. This issue's cover feature's a nice interview with Doug Snyder of DAILY DANCE/Sick Dick and the Volkswagens fame, plus there are interviews with the Dogs (Detroit) and Greg Shaw, a piece on the old CAN'T BUY A THRILL fanzine and the usual feature-length reviews and the like. $9.00.
BLACK TO COMM #25-The latest (December 2003), 162 pages brimming with such goodies as a New York City Scene history (featuring interviews with Max's Kansas City's Peter Crowley and Ruby Lynn Reyner from Ruby and the Rednecks plus pieces on coverboys the New York Dolls and VARIETY scene-booster Fred Kirby), an interview with J. D. King (Coachmen, comix) plus one with guitarist Lou Rone, who would probably be best known to you as leader of the early CBGB-era band Cross as well as one-time guitarist for both Kongress and VON LMO, the Screamin' Mee-Mees, CRETINOUS CONTENTIONS, Simply Saucer rare photos, family tree and gigography, rare fanzines of the Golden Age (and more), tons of book and record reviews (which make up the bulk of this ish!), plus a CD with live Simply Saucer 1975, the Coachmen, The Battleship, Ethel with David Nelson Byers and Ruby and the Rednecks. $12.00
